Blog

Latest Articles

Writing the perfect job description

04/11/2016

With job competition so high these days, it’s important to make sure you’re hiring the right people. Whilst some people will apply for any job they see, crafting an eloquent and well thought out job description will help you to attract the best people in your field.

This guide shows you how to craft a job description that is information rich and fun to read.

The Basic Details

There are some basic details that should be included in every job description before you even think about the tone and layout of the writing.

Job Title – Ensure your job title is relevant to the sector you are working in and has a clearly defined heading such as assistant, junior, senior etc.

Employment type – Is it an internship, a full-time role, part-time or temporary? Miss these out and you’ll miss out on genuine applicants.

Summary – Put together a brief description of the role, the purpose of it, the main responsibilities and who they’ll be reporting to, including which department sector they might fall under.

Key responsibilities – Next, get specific about the responsibilities your new employee will have. Add between 5 and 10 tasks and start each one with a present tense, action verb such as ‘research this’, ‘mock up that’ or ‘collaborate with X’. Help applicants to understand what a typical day might look like.

Skills/qualifications – List all of the essential skills needed, as well as highly desirable ones but try to be realistic. Don’t expect 10 years’ experience on a junior wage.

Company overview – Sell yourself. The job market might be competitive but that doesn’t mean you can afford to be mysterious. Exciting businesses attract exciting people, so talk about your industry, the company goals and current achievements to date.

Location – Where is your business? Is it easy to get to by public transport or is a driver’s license necessary? These details are highly important to potential employees, so don’t miss them out.

Salary – Be honest about the starting salary and if there is room for salary progression, tell them. Here is also a good place to talk about any benefits your offer, (such as pensions and holidays).

Description Do’s

Use direct language and avoid words that are ‘wishy washy’ such as ‘sometimes’ or ‘occasionally’.

Be specific and transparent. Don’t deceive potential employees into thinking they are getting a different role than they actually are. Doing this will leave you with a high employee turnover and nothing else.

Description Don’ts

Avoid huge chunks of text with no real format. This looks clumsy, unprofessional and might put potentially good employees off applying.

The more enthusiastic you are about a potential role, the more it will show through in your job description. You might not get it perfect first try but it’s worth putting in the effort for the right employee.